From EP 1 122 840 A1 plug connectors, especially plugs or sockets, are known that have a prefabricated housing. This prefabricated housing consists of an electrically nonconductive material and is fabricated for example in a plastic injection-molding procedure. This housing has contact chambers in which contacts (e.g. contact pins or contact sleeves) can be inserted and fixed. The contacts are located at the end of respective electrical conductors and are electrically connected to them. The electrical bonding of the contact to the respective electrical conductor is made preferably by a crimp connection that is advantageous with regard to contact safety and long service life especially within applications in the field of automobiles. For achieving a longitudinal impermeability to water, which is of great importance during use of such plug connectors in the field of automobiles, it is necessary that the area in which at least one electrical conductor enters the housing be sealed so that water or moisture, which are on the electrical conductors, cannot get into the contact chambers in which the contacts are situated. To this end it is provided in EP 1 122 840 that the housing can be surrounded with an injection-molding plastic in the area where at least one electrical conductor enters the housing. This way a seal is produced in an injection-molding procedure in the one end area of the plug connector so that no water or moisture can reach from the direction of the electrical conductors into the direction of the contact chambers anymore. In EP 1 122 840 A1 it is furthermore proposed that this injection-molding plastic also surrounds the contact point (crimp area), at which the contact is electrically contacted to the ends of the electrical conductors. This leads to a further increase of contact safety and a long service life. However during the molding and the processing of the injection-molding plastic it has to been noticed that this injection-molding plastic can get all the way to the contact chambers. To avoid intrusion of the injection-molding plastic into the contact chambers, the prefabricated housing, which is preassembled with the contacts and the electrical conductors, is inserted into an injection-molding tool, this tool having a slide that fits with the injection-molding tool in such a way that it prevents the injection-molding plastic from getting into the contact chambers of the housing during the molding process. Such a slide has to be manufactured individually for every housing type, so that the tool cost is high. In addition for every housing type it is necessary to provide a slide adapted to it on the injection-molding tool, so that only one style of plug connector can be manufactured by each injection-molding tool.
Furthermore it is necessary in EP 1 122 840 that the electrical conductors, which can be e.g. flexible strands or wires with an insulating coating, have to be inserted in a given arrangement into the injection-molding tool. This is necessary so that the injection-molding plastic can effectively form the seal. Up to now these electrical conductors were clamped together, so an over-injection in the outgoing area, that is at the transition area between the prefabricated housing into the direction of the electrical conductors, can be caused by the resulting gussets during the clamping together. During movements of the plug connection, which are typical in an application in the field of automobiles because of vibrations, damage is caused to the electrical conductors by these resulting gussets, so that a continuous electrical contact is no longer securely guaranteed. Furthermore, the molding and the processing (the extrusion process) is problematic depending on the type of electrical conductor. This means that in implementations with a common clamping the length of the injection-molding plastic (extrusion length) has to be extended, because the area where the single electrical conductors lie on top of each other cannot be used as extrusion length for the sealing.
Besides it is state of the art (DE 10 2005 009 441 from Feb. 2, 2005, see FIG. 5 of this patent application), that a slide is provided that can be inserted into the prefabricated housing before the beginning of the injection-molding process and that prevents intrusion of the injection-molding plastic into the contact area of the at least one contact, this slide not forming a part of an injection-molding tool for the molding and processing of the injection-molding plastic. This effectively prevents on single-row or multi-row plug connectors that the injection-molding plastic can intrude into the front contact area of the housing, that is in the direction of the contact chambers, and simultaneously the contact area, that is the area in which the electrical conductors are electrically contacted to the contacts, can still be effectively sealed. On double-row or multi-row plug connectors the slide is inserted between both the contact rows or between the several contact rows for achieving a sufficient seal. This way the lateral slide known so far can be given up in an injection-molding tool because of the existence and the insertion of the slide into the prefabricated housing. Furthermore it is provided that an element is used that fixes several electrical conductors in a given position relative to each other, this element being surrounded at least partially, especially completely, by the injection-molding plastic. This element has the task of positioning the several electrical conductors in a given position relative to each other, so that over-injections into the outgoing area can be prevented by it. What is more, the extrusion length can be reduced by the element according to the invention due to the positioning of the single electrical conductors relative to each other with a common clamping. Such an element is a possibility with single-row plug connectors, when the electrical conductors are flexible strands or cables or such, that is single conductors. However the one-piece element consisting of slide and strand casing has the disadvantage that it is complexly formed and can thus lead to difficulties during assembly, especially during insertion into the injection-molding tool. Besides it is necessary to remove the spacer, which holds the slide and the fixing element together before and during the injection process, after the injection-molding process, so that it does not stick out of the finished plug connector. Furthermore the slide only serves to seal the contact chamber against the injection-molding plastic, which is already satisfactorily solved with this implementation. However there is no satisfactory solution yet concerning the fixing of the electrical conductor inside the housing of the plug connector, because the slide has only a seal function and no fixing function and the element for fixing of the electrical conductors is arranged at the end of the housing, that is outside the housing of the plug connectors.